This article adopts a theoretical perspective that integrates practice-based studies and affect theory to explore the intricate interplay between work practices and affective states, viewing both as collective experiences that emerge and evolve together. The contribution offers insights drawn from ethnographic research conducted in two care homes for elderly individuals with dementia. It demonstrates how care practices are implemented to prevent, manage, and alter disturbing affective states, often leading to unexpected outcomes for both professionals and residents. In this ongoing interaction between work practices and ‘affective practice,’ narratives arise that aim to give meaning to affective states and the efforts made to manage them, thereby maintaining existing organizational and relational structures. Consequently, the primary objective of the article is to reconsider emotions and other affective states in processual terms, focusing not so much on their nature, but on the collective and socially learned ways in which they are mobilized.
